Two Reasons to Come Back to Me
by Kimpisces
Summary: On Hold. Ryou falls into a deep depression after Bakura leaves. But there's no way for anyone to get a hold of Bakura when Ryou needs him the most. Will Bakura be able to come back in time?
1. Chapter 1

**Two Reasons to Come Back to Me**

**Summary:** Ryou falls into a deep depression after Bakura leaves. But there's no way for anyone to get a hold of Bakura when Ryou needs him the most. Will Bakura be able to come back in time?

**Requirements:** Boy-loves-boy tolerance and maybe some tissue paper if you're prone to be emotional

**Rating:** PG-13

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own anyone..I have a feeling I never will but one can hope that maybe, eventually, I can say 'Ha, I own insert name here'. But for now...nothing ...so don't sue, it's not worth it

**Authoress Note:** This is the sequel to "The Reason"...I originally called it, Change of Heart, but I came up with a different title when I came up with a better idea nods

**Chapter One**

_**Ryou stood at his window and watched Bakura ride away on his motorcycle. "You've shown me a side of you I didn't know. Kura, I think you do have your priorities straight. I just hope that you realize it soon and come back home to me." Ryou whispered to the wind and then changed the mode of communication. /Love you. And yes, I will marry you when you come back/**_

_**Somewhere a smile emerged in acknowledgement to that comment**_

The rain poured down outside of the window. It was raining cats and dogs now. Over the past few weeks, it had rained here and there but never like this before. This would be complete suicide to go out in it. If you didn't catch pnemonia, you were incredibly lucky.

Ryou wished that he could go out there. He wished that he could go out in the rain and play around but if Yami caught him doing so, he would get a lecture. Ryou hated Yami's lectures. Every since that day, exactly one hundred days ago, when Bakura left, Yami had been over here every day. He also found something that Ryou was doing wrong for him to yell at Ryou for. It wasn't fair!

Ryou just wished that Bakura was here. Why in the name of the seven seas, couldn't he just come back now? Surely he had figured out whatever he had gone to find by now. It couldn't have been that bad. Bakura was never that cruel to him, well maybe in the beginning but that was ages ago. He had become tolerant, kind even. So why was it taking him so long to come back? Didn't he want to come back to Ryou? Didn't he?

Ryou sniffled and reached up with an arm to wipe away his tears. He didn't want Yami to come in here while he was crying either. That was much worse than the lectures. Yami was so understanding, knew exactly what to do to try and make Ryou feel better. It actually made Ryou feel worse. Yami thought that it was his obligation to come here every day and make sure that Ryou was okay. Yami acted like there was nothing he wanted more than to be here, taking care of Ryou. But Ryou knew better, Bakura had told Yami to make sure that Ryou didn't do anything stupid. Yami really would prefer being at home, with Yugi. But instead he had to be here with Ryou to make sure that he didn't hurt himself.

Sort of the way it was with his parents.

Ryou shook his head at that thought and continued to look out of the window. He wondered where Bakura was right now. If it was raining there too. If Bakura wished that Ryou was there so that they could cuddle together like they always did through every storm to keep warm and watch the rain together. Ryou wondered if Bakura had thought of him at all during the time that he had been away.

Except for the time that he got around to sending him a parcel.

Every week, exactly like clockwork, a parcel was delivered to the house. Ryou would sign for it and then go and put it in Bakura's room with the rest of Bakura's stuff. He didn't want to open them. He just knew that there was a letter in one of them that told him that he had decided against his offer to marry Ryou. He just knew that somewhere there was a letter that said that he had found some hot girl that he was sleeping with now and that he wasn't coming back.

Ryou never wanted to see that letter.

So Ryou just didn't open the parcels. Just like he didn't open the letters from him mother, even though he knew that there were checks in them. If Ryou didn't open it, than he could pretend that nothing was wrong. Ryou could act like nothing had ever happened, will never happen. Because if he doesn't open them, then he doesn't know if anything did.

It was a perfect plan. He could pretend forever and ever that Bakura was just lost. That Bakura had just got sidetracked in his quest to get back to Ryou. When thirty years passed, he could still be lying to himself about that. Hell, maybe by then he would even believe it. Fifteen years had got by since his mother left and he almost believed that she would come back for him. That was proof that he could convince himself of anything. Right?

Ryou shivered as a draft made its way through the small crack in the window. Ryou reached up and closed the window, but it was too late, the room was already freezing cold. Ryou got up, out of his seat and exited the room, heading to Bakura's room.

He opened the door and looked around at the boxes that were laid out on the floor. There were twelve unopened boxes that littered the floor and one opened one that laid on the bed. Ryou made his way over to that one box and pulled out the gift that had been inside of it. A hand-crafted blanket with Bakura's picture on it.

Ryou adored the blanket. Bakura's image was carefully stitched onto it. Bakura was even pictured underneath a moon and his hair was flying in the wind. At the bottom was a simple kanji symbol, the symbol 'Ai' which meant love. Bakura had probably paid a lot of money for this blanket and it said so much to Ryou. That was why Ryou loved it so much.

Even though the first gift had been so perfect, Ryou hadn't dared to touch any of the other ones. He didn't want to find that letter. He couldn't find that letter.

With that, Ryou turned around and left the room. He went back to the window and wrapped the blanket around himself as he curled up on the window still. The view was beautiful. He could see everything from here. The only better view in the whole was on the balcony that was connected to Bakura's room.

Ryou figured that if he sat here until Bakura got here than he would see Bakura coming down the road and he would know exactly when his love came back to him.

Then he would know that that letter wasn't in any of the parcels and together, Bakura and him would open every single parcel together and Ryou would be able to experience all of the joy with Bakura at his side.

Ryou saw a car pull into his driveway and knew, from experience, that it was Yami's. Ryou sighed but didn't move away from the window. He knew that it would just be worse if he tried to appear to be doing something else.

He heard the door open and Yami call upstairs. Then he heard Yami walk up the stairs and head to Ryou's room. Ryou wondered if he could make it under the bed before Yami come make it into the room.

Before Ryou could find out, Yami opened the door and looked at Ryou.

A frown greeted Ryou today and he knew what was coming. Yami went over to the window and closed the drapes. "Come on Ryou, don't look out at the rain all day. It's depressing. You have something else you can do. I know you do."

Ryou nodded and sighed and stood up. Yami looked at the blanket and saw the picture of Bakura.

"What's that?"

"A present." Ryou said quickly, pulling the blanket closer to him.

"Well-" Yami didn't know what to say and he hesitated. "Why don't you leave it here for a while and we'll go downstairs and cook. I'm sure you're hungry. You don't look like you've eaten since I left yesterday and all we had then was a couple of cookies. Come on, I'll make pasta. That's your favourite, right?"

Ryou shook his head violently. "I don't want to leave the blanket here."

"Well you can't wear it while you're in the kitchen." Yami pointed out in a soft voice.

"I don't want to eat!" Ryou exclaimed and ran to Bakura's room, closing and locking the door behind him. He pushed the empty box off the bed and curled up on it. He ignored the sound of Yami knocking on the door and cried.

Why couldn't Yami just leave him alone?

* * *

Bakura walked down the street. This was supposed to be the best place to find presents for someone back home in all of France and yet he still hadn't found anything that caught his eyes. Store after store had left him empty handed, and not because he did not have enough money to get anything for his Ryou. 

There was just nothing anywhere that reminded him of Ryou. That's what he tried to send back to Ryou, little things that reminded Bakura of him. Not some big fluffy bear that people say will make Ryou feel better that Bakura left him at home while he came here alone. He wasn't trying to pity Ryou for being left back home. He was just trying to send his lover a present. I mean if you went uptown and brought him back a present, you wouldn't bring it back because you pitied him for having had to stay at home for a fifteen minutes.

Bakura walked into another little store and was amazed at the amount of snowglobes in this ones. They were everywhere! There was no place that Bakura could look where there weren't any. Bakura headed over a shelf and saw ones that had petals that fell down instead of snowflakes. He grabbed one that had a picture of a wolf inside of it and held it up. Was this good enough for Ryou? Was this something that reminded him of Ryou? Or was this just something that caught his eyes?

Bakura sighed, putting it back down. He didn't want to send Ryou something that just caught his eyes. He wanted to send something significant so that Ryou knew that Bakura was spending his time think of him. Bakura growled, this is was just so difficult to do. It was like there was nothing in all of Paris that reminded him of Ryou.

Bakura continued to look around the snowglobes though, he was drawn to them unexpectedly. Prehaps this is where he would find something that reminded him of Ryou. There was always a chance.

And then Bakura found it!

A small snowglobe that maybe only five centimeters in diameter at the bottom and the globe itself only being about seven. It was small and innocent looking, almost out of place next to all of the huge snowglobes that it had been placed by. Almost like the way his light looked when he was surrounded by his friends, excluding Yugi of course.

However it wasn't just the size that made Bakura know that it was just perfect for Ryou. It was the fact that in the middle of it was a small model of a small figure, it was too small to tell the gender, wrapped up in a blanket. There was writing on the globe itself that said 'Come back to me' so it was obvious that the figure was looking for someone. When Bakura shook it, it found that small water droplets rushed to the bottom of the globe, almost as if it were crying. Bakura nodded, this was exactly what he wanted.

He went to the counter, paid for it and then headed back to his hotel room. He wanted to write a small letter to Ryou, like he did with every note and then he'd hide it somewhere in the boxes that he made for the presents. They all had a secret compartment in them and all of them contained a small, personal note from Bakura to explain the present and to tell Ryou how much he missed him. That way Ryou could spend some time looking for the note instead of waiting at the window for Bakura. It wasn't healthy for Ryou to spend all of his time waiting for Bakura.

How much Bakura always missed Ryou.

But Bakura still wasn't done his soul searching. There was something missing in his life and he didn't know what it was but it was tearing a hole in his heart and he wanted to find out what it was. As soon as he did, he could go back to Ryou and they could be together again and Bakura would never have to do this again.

Bakura made his way to the hotel, snuck in so that the girl that worked at the front desk wouldn't see him and squeal over what he was holding in his hand. Most likely she would think that it was for him and Bakura would have to wrestle with her, and possibly break the globe, in order to keep her from getting it. The last thing that Bakura wanted was some girl to get a present that he finally found for Ryou. Ryou was the only one that he would ever give a present to that was this thought out. The rest of his friends would get, at the most, the first thing he found when he walked in a store that he figured they would sort of enjoy.

Getting to his room, Bakura slipped in and locked the door. He quickly checked his room for any signs that anyone had been in it, something that he did out of nervous habit rather than necessity. From his ancient Egypt times he learned that staying in some place that anyone could get into was a bad idea and should be checked every time you go in and out. Those kinds of things you never forget.

Bakura grabbed a piece of paper from the pad in his backpack and a pen. He tapped the pen on the paper a couple of times while he tried to figure out exactly what he was going to say. Obvious he knew the basis of what he was going to say but there was so much to think about. How much did he want to say? How personal did he want to make it? He also had to make sure that he said it in a way that wouldn't get Ryou offended when he heard about exactly why Bakura had bought the snowglobe for him.

That on it's own was going to be hard to do. He knew how sensitive Ryou was and how bad he would take it if he found out that Bakura had bought this because it reminded Bakura of someone waiting for Bakura endlessly. Which was what he knew Ryou would be doing. In fact, the only happy points of his life were the parcel recieving. He didn't like to think of Ryou like that but it was the simple truth and there was no other way around it.

He knew that it was true though. He had phoned Yami a couple of times on his journey and had talked to him about Ryou almost the entire time. Yami was really worried about the boy and he spent most of his time over at Ryou's, trying to make sure that Ryou didn't send himself into a major depressive state because Bakura wasn't there.

Yami also spent some of those phone calls lecturing Bakura on leaving. However those usually only lasted for a minute until Yami changed the subject to what Ryou had been doing lately. Both Yami and Bakura knew that there was nothing Yami would say that would bring him back any sooner. Bakura was out here to find out who he was and he would come back as soon as that was completed, not any sooner.

Bakura looked down at the blank piece of paper and pushed it away in disgust. He wasn't one to usually be at a loss of words but obviously today was different. Bakura shook his head and grabbed the phone. Maybe Yami would be able to give him some ideas.

Dailing the Motou's phone number, Bakura listened to it ring. On the fourth ring someone picked up.

"Moshi Moshi. Motou no otaku desu." _Hello, this is the Motou residence. _

"Hello. Is Yami there?" Bakura asked, hoping that he was.

"Bakura?" Someone questioned from the other end of the line. It was impossible to figure out which one of the Motous have when you're on the phone. They all sound the same.

"Yes."

"Hey! It's Yugi. Are you coming home any time soon?" The excited voice continued and Bakura rolled his eyes.

"Not that I know of." Bakura tried to sound as patient as he could but the annoyance he felt was dripping into his voice. "Is Yami there or not?"

"No. He went over to Ryou's a couple of hours ago. He hasn't come back yet so I'm assuming that either things are going really bad over there or really well." Yugi replied.

Bakura nodded and then realized that Yugi couldn't see that. "Yeah. Thanks a lot Yugi. Tell Yami that I phoned and said hi. I'll phone him back sometime this week."

"Why don't you phone him at your house?"

"I don't want to interrupt whatever Ryou and him are doing. Good bye." Bakura hung up quickly and checked his watch. It was almost one o'clock. If he left right now he wouldn't have to pay for another day in this hotel.

Bakura grabbed the piece of paper and scribbled a quick note, knowing what he wanted to say. Bakura smiled, put it in the compartment in the box and put the small snowglobe in it. He wrapped it up with newspaper and frowned as he realized that there was still room in the box for something else.

Bakura looked around him for something he could put in the box and couldn't find anything. Bakura sighed and reached for his pocket. Maybe there was something in there. Bakura pulled out one of the knives that he had collected from different places he stopped and shrugged. Maybe he should put this in there.

Bakura did and quickly closed the box. Sure there was nothing about the knife in the note but Ryou would figure out what to do with it without an explaination.

Grabbing his backpack, Bakura left the room and went down the stairs to pay for the nights he had spent in this hotel. He would mail the parcel on his way out of the town. Hopefully it would get to Ryou on time. Maybe the guy sending it would know.

**TBC**

A/N: Alright R&R please. Happy, you're-doing-everything-right reviews will be smiled at (and will make me happy!), constructive critism with be taken to heart (and probably used) and flames will be laughed at.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two Reasons to Come Back to Me**

**Summary: **Ryou falls into a deep depression after Bakura leaves. But there is no way for anyone to get a hold of Bakura when Ryou needs him the most. Will Bakura be able to come back in time?

**Requirements, Rating and Disclaimer: **Please see the first chapter -

**Chapter Two:**

"Ryou? Are you okay?" Yami called through the locked door. He didn't want to have to break anything of Ryou's at a time like this. There was no reason to ruin something that would end up making Ryou even more depressed. He was trying to help Ryou, not make him worse. "Talk to me Ryou. I need to know that you're still okay."

"Go away!" Came the response and Yami closed his eyes, trying to ignore the angry energy that he was receiving from Ryou. He didn't want to have Ryou like this. It wasn't right. How could the one person who cares the most about Ryou allow this to happen to him? Why can't Bakura just come to his senses and come home?

"Ryou? You need to eat. Just come out and you can have your blanket in the kitchen. We'll just have to watch it to make sure it doesn't catch on fire or something. You know, if you really want to, you can just watch me cook and you can sit at the table."

"I'm not hungry!" Ryou called back stubbornly.

"Yes you are. You just don't want to admit it." Yami wiggled the doorknob again, even though he knew that it was locked and it was useless to try it. "Bakura wouldn't want you to starve yourself Ryou and you know that. So why don't you just come out here and eat something."

"Bakura doesn't care! He's not coming back so why would he care?" Ryou exclaimed and then Yami could hear him burst into tears again.

Yami closed his eyes and leaned against the door. He hated this. Why did Ryou have to cry so much? He knew that it was tearing him up inside but why did he have to cry? Yami had no idea what to do with people when they cry. Was he supposed to just leave them alone or hug them? And if he was supposed to sit there, hugging him and whispering encouraging phrases, then why didn't it ever seem to keep Ryou from crying more?

"Bakura is going to come back. You know that he needs you. He can't just leave you now. You two are going to get married and you're going to spend the rest of your lives together. Bakura's just a little screwed up right now and needs to rediscover himself. It has nothing to do with you, Ryou and as soon as he figured himself out, he's going to come back. So you have to eat otherwise, I'm going to have to explain to him why he has no fiancee to come home to. "

Ryou didn't reply and Yami knew that he had won this battle. Ryou was thinking about Bakura actually coming back which was making him happy which was keeping him from crying. Now if Yami could just do this for a little bit longer until Bakura comes to his senses and come home. Then everything will be all right.

"I'm going to go and make you some lasagna, okay Ryou? I'll come back and get you when it's done, that way you don't even have to be in the kitchen. Does that sound good?" There was no response but then again, Yami hadn't really been expecting one. "I'll be back in a little bit Ryou and if you need me, I'll be right downstairs."

Yami practically raced to the kitchen, not at all happy with the idea that he was leaving Ryou to his own devices for however long it took to make lasagna. In fact, he would have just made Ryou macaroni and cheese if he didn't know that Ryou needed something more hearty than that.

Yami finished preparing the meal quickly and then put it in the oven and ran back upstairs. He checked the doorknob of Bakura's room again and was surprised to find that it was unlocked now. Yami peeked inside the room and saw Ryou lying on the bed, sleeping.

What really startled Yami though was the presence of boxes surrounding the bed. Yami wondered if Ryou had packed up all of Bakura's stuff but looking around Yami could see that all of Bakura's things were intact. So what were these boxes?

Yami decided that he would ask Ryou when he woke up. Then Yami tiptoed out of the room and went to the phone that was situated in the hallway and phoned home.

"Hello?" Yugi asked, answering the phone. Yami reveled in the sound of his lover's voice, happy to hear it as always.

"Hello Yugi." Yami said huskily.

"Oh Yami! How is Ryou doing? Is he any better now?"

Yami closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. "No, Ryou's not better. He's been starving himself lately and I think that he believes Bakura's not going to come back. I wish that Bakura would make some sort of contact with him so that Ryou stopped thinking that he's not going to come back."

"Yeah, that's probably what Ryou needs the most right now." Yugi agreed. "That reminds me, Bakura phoned you earlier. However when I told him that you were over at Ryou's, he said that he would just phone back later. I tried to convince him to phone you at Ryou's but he said that he wouldn't."

"No wonder Ryou's depressed, Bakura won't even phone him." Yami sighed. "Listen Ryou, did he tell you where he was or give you a number that I could reach him at?"

"No, he didn't. I'm sorry Yami."

"It's not your fault." Yami turned towards the room that Ryou was in and saw that Ryou was awake now and standing in the doorway, looking at him. "Ryou's awake Yugi, I have to go now. I'll be back a little late today so don't wait for me at dinner."

"All right Yami, I don't mind. I just hope that Ryou gets better."

"We all do. Goodbye hikari."

"Goodbye."

Yami hung up and looked out at Ryou and smiled warmly. "Hello Ryou. The lasagna is in the oven. It should be another few minutes and then you can eat."

"Thanks." Ryou yawned.

"You're welcome." Yami swallowed and looked at Ryou as if he could figure out how Ryou was going to react to his question by something on his face. "Ryou, has Bakura contacted you at all during the time that he's been gone?"

Ryou fell completely silent and looked down at his feet. "He sent me gifts."

"That's great! See, he does care about you. Why else would he give you gifts?" Yami smiled, happy that he had discovered that Bakura wasn't a complete and total idiot.

"Because he feels sorry for me." Ryou replied.

"No, he does it because he cares for you Ryou." Yami walked up to Ryou and gave him a hug. "So what has he gotten you?"

"Besides from this blanket, I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know? Are they that weird?"

"No, I just haven't opened any of the other ones."

"Why not?" Yami looked down at Ryou, confused. "Why haven't you opened any of the other ones. You obviously like this blanket a lot so I'm sure that Bakura can't do that bad of a job at picking out presents for you."

"My mom does this."

"Does what?" Yami asked, confused. "What does she do? Ryou, you're not making any sense."

"My mom sends me something every month, like clockwork. Bakura may be more frequent with his gifts but so was she when she first started." Ryou dropped to the ground and wrapped his arms around his knees, rocking himself back and forth. "She left when I was just three you know. She just walked out of the front door one day, acting like she was just going to work and she just never came back. I don't know how long I stood at the front window, waiting to see her car pull up. It never did though."

"That's horrible Ryou but Bakura's not like your mom."

"How do you know?" Ryou asked, tears starting to fall again. "He did the same thing she did. He walked out that door with the intent to leave me and not come back. He just sends me presents now out of pity, not because he actually wants to. I know Yami, I've had to deal with it my entire life. Trust me, I know."

"Bakura's going to come back Ryou. He's not going to just never come back."

"Yes he will! My mom sends a check for me once a month because she feels bad that she just left me but I haven't opened them since the first one I got and I'm not going to open any more of Bakura's either. I don't want to see his pity presents. I'm not going to accept things that people don't really want me to have."

"Bakura really wants you to have these. Come on, I'm going to pick out a box and you're going to open it and we'll see what Bakura got you. He's probably left notes in each of them too so why don't you just look?" Yami asked, holding out his hand to assist Ryou in getting up.

"No, I'm not going to."

"Come on Ryou, just one box. It won't hurt you to open one more box." Yami tried to reason with Ryou. "Just open one more box from him Ryou and see what he wanted to give you."

Ryou brushed at his tears but then slowly nodded. Yami smiled and pulled him out. They walked into Bakura's room and Yami pointed at a random box. Ryou pulled it onto the bed and then slowly opened it. Yami watched him with pride, knowing that they just may have broken through Ryou's depression.

_You just better have given him a good gift Bakura_. Yami thought to himself and Ryou reached into the box and pulled something out. It was a book entitled "Poems from Ancient Egypt."

Yami chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised if some of Bakura's own poetry is in there." Yami was smiling but when he looked up at Ryou's face, he stopped.

Ryou looked like he had just seen a ghost. He dropped the book in what appeared to be shock and got up off the bed, whimpering.

"Ryou, what's wrong?"

"That's the very book my mom got my father the last day they were together." Ryou said and tears started to pour from his eyes again. "I was right Yami. Bakura is planning to not come back!"

"Ryou, no!" Yami exclaimed but it had no effect as Ryou ran passed him and down the stairs. Yami heard the front door open and close and his eyes slid shut. What had he done?

scene break

Bakura rode down a virtually empty road and wondered why no one used this particular road. It had a great view of the ocean and Bakura smiled as he watched the gentle lapping of the waves upon the beach. He noticed a walkway down the beach and steered his bike down it.

The sun was about to set and Bakura sat down on the sand, taking out his sketch book. Slowly he drew a picture of the beautiful sight in front of him. When he was finished, he looked at his picture and frowned. It felt like there was something missing but he couldn't really put his finger on it.

Realization dawned on him and he smiled, drawing Ryou into the picture. No picture could truly be considered beautiful if it didn't have Ryou in it. Bakura carefully tore the picture out of his book and placed it in the pocket that he kept all of his sketches in.

A pang of agony hit his heart and Bakura moaned, his hand coming up instantly to try and ease the pain. Slowly it went away but Bakura's thoughts filled with worse case scenarios that could have occurred to Ryou to cause this pain.

Shaking his head, Bakura dismissed the thoughts. Ryou was thousands and thousands of miles away. There was no way he was feeling something for Ryou. Their connection didn't reach this far.

With that in mind, Bakura got up and brushed the sand off of his pants and then got back on his bike and headed up to the main road, not noticing as his recent picture fell onto the sand.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Two Reasons to Come Back to Me**

_For summary, disclaimer and all that other nice stuff, please go see the previous chapters. Thanks!_

_Btw..if there are any spelling/grammer errors, it's my fault! I don't have my spell checker installed right now and so I just went through it myself and I think I got most of it but I'm probably lying to myself...so if you see anything that really bothers you, please tell me. My one hand likes to type faster than the other so I get all kinds of typos all the time..._

_Oh and as always R&R ..thanks..._

**Chapter Three**

"Ryou, no!" Ryou could hear Yami call after him but he didn't slow down at all. He was so tired of Yami's help. Who gave him the right to come in this house every day and try to cheer him up? Ryou didn't need to be cheered up! The only thing that Yami had done for him now was assure him that Bakura was never going to come back. Bakura was gone for good and he was going to be exactly like Ryou's mother. Just send something once a month and hope that Ryou forgot the fact that he hadn't been back to see him in years.

Ryou felt the pounding of the rain on his head as he ran into the backyard. It hurt a little bit but Ryou welcomed the pain. It distracted him from the pain he held inside of himself and he continued to run.

Water blinded Ryou's vision and he couldn't tell if it was the rain or his tears. He didn't even know if he was crying at all. Why did everyone have to act like this around him. Why did everyone have to leave him? Why did Bakura ask him to marry him when he came back? Why couldn't he just admit that he wasn't going to come back? It would make it easier for Ryou because then he didn't have to hold onto the piece of hope that he had now that said that maybe, just maybe, Bakura wasn't the same as his mom. But he was, wasn't he?

Yami probably knew that Bakura wasn't ever going to be come back. Yami knew the entire time and just felt sorry for him because of it. It made senese. Why else would he come to convince Ryou that Bakura was such a good person? Everyone knew that Bakura and Yami only tolerated each other because of Yugi and Ryou. They probably had hated each other from the first second that they laid eyes on each other back in Ancient Egypt.

Ryou slipped on the wet grass and fell down. He felt a rush of pain shoot his up spine and he closed his eyes, relishing in its feeling. He only wished that Bakura could feel the pain too so that he could have a small sample of what he had done to Ryou.

Suddenly Ryou was hit with an image of Bakura riding his bike onto a beach.

Ryou shook his head, willing the picture away. Water dripped off his face and this time he knew that some of them were his own tears.

While he was here, hurting because Bakura had left him, Bakura was out on some beach probably meeting girls and having such a great time. Ryou sat up and buried his head in his hands. How could Bakura be so unaware that Ryou was hurting? How could Bakura actually have no inclination that Ryou's heart was breaking? After all they had been through, how could Bakura have no idea how much he was hurting?

Simply, Ryou's traitorous inner voice replied, he never really loved you.

Ryou tried to ignore the voice in his head but he knew that it was probably right.

Did anyone love him? His mother didn't. Bakura didn't. Could anyone love him? What was wrong with him that no one could bear to love him?

Ryou was completely soaked now and he knew that it wasn't good for him. He was already starting to get sick and this wasn't going to help at all but he couldn't bear to go back inside and listen to Yami telling him that the book didn't mean anything. 'Besides,' he could imagine Yami saying, 'how could Bakura knew that your mother gave that to your father right before she left? He probably saw it and figured that it would remind you of him while he was gone.'

It didn't matter whether or not Bakura actually knew that this was the gift his mother had given to his father, it was an omen. An omen telling Ryou that Bakura was never going to come back. That Bakura was gone forever.

Ryou got up and started to run again. He didn't want to anywhere near this house. He didn't want Yami to find him and convince him to come back inside. He didn't want Malik or Marik to see him on one of their surprise visits to the house to make him go out shopping or something to try and make him feel better. He didn't want anyone to ever find him again. Maybe if they all thought that he was missing someone would tell Bakura to come back.

And if Bakura really loved him, he would and then he would find him.

If not, well then Ryou would just make sure he was never found again.

Ryou felt himself start to slip again and he hit his head this time. A darkness slipped over him and he found himself reaching out to it. After all, Bakura is darkness.

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Bakura drove into a new town. He could barely see five feet in front of him due to the intensity of the night around him and he sighed. It looked like he was going to have no choice but to stop at a hotel and get a room for the night. He didn't want to stop yet because he had hoped to make it farther than this so that he could phone Ryou. One of the men at the last town had told him that there were no phones up in this town. It seems that it was an impossibly small town that had to call an electrician from the next town to fix their power when it went down and it had gone out the day before. The men from the previous town had told Bakura that he should try to go just through because it would be about three days before they managed to get the power back up.

He didn't see how it would affect the phone lines though, weren't they different than the power lines? Bakura shrugged, he had no idea. Mortal problems had never been something that he was interested in and he didn't see why he should start to worry about it now.

Bakura located the hotel with ease and walked into the lobby after parking his motorcyle.

"I would like a room please." Bakura told the receptionist who seemed genuinely surprised to see someone walking into her hotel. "Do you have any that have a private phone line?"

"I'm sorry. A huge tree fell on the lines and there's nothing we can do about the power or phone outage. It doesn't happen often enough for us to get our own electrician or for us to put the lines under the ground. It should be up sometime tomorrow though. The electrician got here earlier than he normally does. It seems to be a slow season for his town so he didn't mind rushing down here." The woman replied. "I have a cell phone though if you would like to use it."

"Nah." Bakura refused the offer. He really didn't like cell phones, they did something to his power that he couldn't explain. "I just wanted to phone someone and tell him where I was. I'm sure he won't mind if I don't call him until tomorrow."

"All right." She smiled. "I have a free room if you'd still like it."

"Yes please."

She handed him a sheet of paper and a pen. "Just fill this out and then I'll give you the key."

Bakura looked at it and frowned. He hated filling these things out. Oh well, he'd have to deal with it if he didn't want to have to go find another hotel. He quickly rushed through it and then handed the paper back.

"All right Mr. Bakura." The receptionist said, reading his name off of the sheet. "You can have room 27. Just try to not do anything that's too loud. We have an older gentleman just down the hall and he tends to get cranky when he is waken up in the middle of the night."

"Thank you." Bakura replied, taking the key. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The receptionist nodded and then pulled her book off of its place on the desk and started reading it. Bakura shrugged and headed up the stairs to where he figured the rooms were.

It wasn't very hard to find room 27, it was the first room on the third floor. Unlocking the door with the key, Bakura threw his bags on the floor next to the door and then headed to the bed, collasping on it, pleased to find that it was comfortable. He noticed that he had his own bathroom and made a note to take a shower before he headed out the next morning. He needed it, he knew that he was starting to smell. It's what happens when you don't shower for a week.

Bakura pulled off his clothes, leaving himself clad in only his boxers and slid underneath the covers. He closed his eyes and prepared to drift into a restless sleep.

Ten minutes later though, he got up, giving up on that idea. He didn't understand why he couldn't just fall asleep. He had been travelling all day in the fresh air, surely that would be enough to allow him to just fall asleep but it appeared not.

Crawling off his bed, he headed over to his bag and grabbed his sketching book again. Sitting down on the floor against the door, Bakura started to draw a picture of his beautiful Ryou sleeping from memory. When he was at home, he constantly snuck into Ryou's room when it was late and he knew that Ryou was sleeping just so he watch him. There was something so alluring about watching Ryou sleeping, knowing that this was the only time in the entire day that Ryou was completely at peace with his surroundings.

The first time he had seen Ryou sleeping was also the first time he had admitted to himself that he had fallen in love with the boy.

Almost an hour later, Bakura added the final details to his drawing. He had surprised himself that he could remember what Ryou looked like sleeping that well. He had even managed to draw every single wrinkle in the bedcovers and the way his hair always fell after he turned over to face the door. Holding the drawing out in front of him, Bakura frowned. There was something wrong with the Ryou in this picture, it almost looked like he was sick.

Bakura shrugged it off. He probably just thought that because he was starting to feel like he was coming down with a bug of sorts. Nothing more than that. He just wanted to incorporate something of himself in the picture so he felt it was more real.

Going back to the bed, Bakura crawled in and pulled the covers up to his chin. Looking over the other side of the bed, Bakura could almost imagine that Ryou was sleeping there right now.

"Goodnight Ryou. I love you so much you know." Bakura whispered to the empty place in the bed. He moved closer and almost felt like there was someone there even though he knew it was just his imagination. Nonetheless, he snuggled up to it and smiled, feeling sleep taking him over. "Stay strong for me Ryou."

"I will." A voice that sounded like Ryou replied. "Just come back to me."

He was just imagining it. Bakura knew but he smiled anyways. It made him so happy to think that this could be real that he didn't dare question it.

Bakura just closed his eyes and went to sleep.

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It was just a dream. Ryou knew that it was. However that didn't help him feel less afraid. He was surrouded by thousands of boxes and Ryou felt tears build in his eyes. This was how long Bakura had been gone. Long enough that even though he was only sending packages once a month, there were this many of him.

Shaking his head, Ryou turned and ran. He couldn't look at them anymore. He couldn't take the truth of what he was seeing.

Ryou saw a door and he grabbed it, throwing it open and found that he was staring rght at Bakura.

"Hello hikari." Bakura said with a smile, holding his arms out to Ryou.

Ryou couldn't believe what he was seeing and he leaped forward, jumping into Bakura's arm. Only to find that Bakura suddnely turned into sand that just slipped through Ryou's fingertips.

Ryou screamed and moved to run away, only to run right into a glass wall. He looked around and discovered that he was in a hourglass, the sand rushing in on him from the top. Ryou banged on the glass wall and then saw Bakura and Yami outside of the hourglass. He called for them to help him but they just laughed at him.

Ryou shot up out of bed. His face was sweating and he felt like he was freezing. He looked around him and wondered how he had gotten back in the house. He was sure that he had fainted outside. Had someone found him and brought him back?

Suddenly he felt arm arms around him and he looked around frantically. There wasn't anybody there. Confused, Ryou sunk back down into the mattress and was surprised to find that warm heat again. He looked to the right of him and was almost positive that he saw Bakura there but when he reached out his hand just passed right through his yami.

Great, he thought to himself, I'm going crazy.

However he moved closer to the illusion his brain was making for him and basked in the feeling of it. He missed Bakura so much that even this was enough to keep him happy.

"Goodnight Ryou. I love you so much you know." A voice said to him and Ryou gasped. It had sounded so much like Bakura but he knew that Bakura wasn't any where near him so how could it be? Ryou closed his eyes tightly and tried to block the voice out but it continued to talk. "Stay strong for me Ryou."

"I will." Ryou whispered back, so softly that he barely heard himself. "Just come back to me." He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Two Reaons to Come Back to Me**

**Disclaimer, Summary, Rating and all those other goodies: **Please see the previous chapter

**Chapter Four**

"Ryou." Bakura whispered softly into the cold room. Reaching over to where he knew that Ryou was lying, Bakura moved closer to the source of his prior shared body heat. Unable to find Ryou, Bakura opened his eyes and looked over at where he had assumed Ryou would be. There was no one where and Bakura sat up in his bed, looking around for traces of his other half. Only then did he realize that he was not in his own bed but in a hotel room.

Shaking his head at his own stupidity, Bakura climbed out of bed and put fresh clothes on. From there, he went to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. Looking at his own reflection, Bakura noted that he looked much more rested than he had for a long time. Apparently the hallocination he had allowed himself to believe had allowed him to sleep much better than he had for a long time.

Making sure his sketch book was inside of his bag, Bakura headed down the stairs to the main lobby. He wanted to check the phones one more time before he left for the next town. He had an urge to hear Ryou's voice right now that was stronger than any of the other urges he had felt for a long time.

"Did you have a good sleep?" The girl at the desk asked as she saw him. "I hope that you found everything to your satisfaction."

"Yes." Bakura said simply, not really paying her much attention. "Are the phones up yet?"

"No. I'm sorry." She replied with an apologetic smile on her face. "The offer to use my cell phone though is still open."

"No thanks. I'll just go to the next town and phone from there." Bakura replied and pulled out some money. "Will this be enough?"

"Yes, thank you." She smiled and took some of the money and put it in the cash register. "I would go passed the next town actually. There is a huge parade going on down there and there's royality there and everything. I doubt that there would be any where quiet for you to make the call and all of the hotels with undoubtably be full."

"I'll find a way." Bakura replied and then grabbed his stuff and headed to his motorcyle.

He didn't care if there was a pack of wild wolves guarding the town. He was going to make the phone call to Ryou tonight and there was no way that was going to happen if he had to go two towns away.

Three hours later he pulled into the next town and was shocked to see what was there. There wasn't a single inch of the entire town that he could see that wasn't in a bright festive colour. Obviously that girl from the hotel had been right. There wasn't going to be any hotels here but at least he could find a phone. Even a five minute call to his hikari would be enough to do him over for the six hour drive it was from this town to the next.

Parking in the outskirts of the town, Bakura grabbed his bag and then pushed his way into the crowd. He would just make his way across town and over there would be free pay phones that weren't surrounded by people. After all, there was no way that this festival actually did spread all the way across the town. He would just have to find the part of the town that this stupid parade hadn't taken over and then all would be well.

As he walked through the crowds he saw dozens of people will expensive jewellery. Rolling his eyes, he continued on his way. This would way too easy for a pickpocket. All they would have to do is reach out and the jewellery would just come along with them and in this size of a crowd, who would notice you doing it?

Bakura however didn't have the time to take anything off any of these women and so continued to push his way through the crowd. He wanted to phone Ryou now. He didn't know why his urge was so high but he knew that he needed to do it immediately.

He was probably just feeling lonely and wanted to hear the reassurance of Ryou's voice but he didn't think so. There was something really wrong and he had to get to a phone now.

Bakura pushed his way through the crowds for about half an hour before he got fed up with the entire thing. Surely people could stop moving around and let him through. It almost seemed like they were trying to step in front of him when he tried to walk through. It was almost like they were trying to piss him off.

Taking a deep breath, Bakura moved to get around a rather large lady who moved in front of the way that he planned to go. When Bakura switched directions, she did too. Rolling his eyes, Bakura stood back for a minute to let her go where she wanted to without cutting Bakura off but Bakura found that she didn't even move. Well at least until Bakura tried to move passed again then she quickly started to move again.

Bakura growled and muttered a quick 'excuse me' in the local language and he tried to move passed again only to find that she moved in front of him once again. Getting frusterated rather quickly, Bakura decided to turn and go completely around her. The only problem was, she seemed intent on bugging him because she seemed to have the same idea too.

Except when she moved to cut him off this time, he jogged behind her and finally got passed her. Only to find a solid wall of people in front of him with absolutely no gaps.

Growling loudly now, Bakura moved towards him, asking politely for them to move but they all seemed to ignore him completely. Completely frusterated, Bakura pushed his way through them and at the same time, grabbed one of the womens' rather expensive necklace and slipped it into his pocket.

Served them right for not moving, he thought.

He finally managed to get to the outskirts of the parade, after another half an hour and began to look around for a pay phone. He found one and was heading towards it when he was grabbed from behind.

Bakura turned around to see that he was looking directly into the eyes of a police officer. Feeling someone slip the necklace out of his pocket and hold it up, Bakura closed his eyes. He had been caught by those stupid women who would have never been robbed by him at all if they would have just let him passed.

'You're under arrest.' The police officer muttered in his local language and Bakura sighed. He should have known better than to try and pickpocket any of these ladies.

Bakura didn't protest when they put handcuffs on him and brought him to the local police station. However he did protest when they ignored him as he asked for his free phone call. Apparently there was no such thing in this country. Bakura sighed and sat down in the corner of the cell, sending a glare at the only other person in it who stopped trying to come over to them.

'Here, you can have this.' A different police officer told him as he threw his sketch book into the cell.

Bakura took it and opened it, needing to at least see the drawings of Ryou. He opened it and dropped it in shock.

Ryou's face was gone.

Not just erased, if it had been erased there would be telltale signs like the odd line that came from Bakura pressing too hard on parts of it but there was nothing.

Something was really wrong and there was nothing that Bakura could do from the inside of this jail cell.

TBC


End file.
